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December 30, 2005

During the week of Dec. 11-17, the governments of Brazil and Argentina unexpectedly announced that they would pay off the balances owed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before the end of this year. On Dec. 13, Brazilian Finance Minister Antonio Palocci told reporters that the Lula da Silva government would dip into its sizable $63 billion in reserves to pay the $15.56 billion it owed, noting this would save $900 million in interest payments. Two days later, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner announced that he would also use Central Bank reserves to pay an outstanding balance of $9.8 billion, saving $1 billion in interest payments.

While IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato nominally "welcomed" both actions, he was decidedly unenthusiastic about Argentina's decision. President Kirchner's Dec. 15 speech at the Presidential palace was a strong nationalist attack on IMF policies for plunging Argentina into poverty and indigence. His denunciation of the Fund, and assertion that by paying off the $9.8 billion, "we are burying a good portion of the ominous past of infinite indebtedness and eternal adjustment," brought the audience of business leaders, provincial governors, legislators, trade unionists, and human rights activists to their feet in an ovation.

Two members of the LaRouche Youth Movement were also present and were able to hand out copies of EIR and several of Lyndon LaRouche's strategic writings to Cabinet members and other attendees.

Rato said on Dec. 16 that he was pleased with Argentina's repayment plan, but that the country faces "important challenges and opportunities," and that the Fund stands ready to come to its assistance in meeting those challenges. In his year-end press conference a few days later, he made a point of saying that Argentina still has many "pending reforms" to be carried out, and that it would do well to follow Brazil's example of a "prudent" and "coherent" fiscal and monetary policy.

In contrast, Rato exuberantly declared that Brazil's announcement reflected the "growing strength of its external position" and "excellent track record of policy management by Brazilian authorities." The Fund, he said, "looks forward to continuing a close and constructive relationship with the Brazilian authorities."What's the Difference?

There is no big mystery behind Rato's quite different responses to what were, on the surface, similar decisions by the two governments. As soon as he took office on Jan. 1, 2002, President Lula abandoned the anti-IMF pledges of his campaign, and with typically Brazilian pragmatism, accepted the IMF's policy dictates.

In his Dec. 13 announcement, Wall Street agent Palocci, along with fellow financial predator Henrique Meirelles, president of Brazil's Central Bank, attributed the government's ability to make this prepayment to the success of the orthodox IMF policies they have enforced for the last three years.

Not so with Kirchner. The debt owed the IMF "has been a constant vehicle for interference, because it is subject to periodic review and is a source of demands and more demands," he said. "The International Monetary Fund has acted toward our country as a promotor of, and vehicle for, policies which provoked poverty and pain among the Argentine people, at the hand of governments that were lauded as exemplary students of permanent adjustment. Our people can corroborate that."

The experience of Argentina's Dec. 23, 2001 default on $88 billion in public debt, and the devastating crisis that ensued, is sufficient proof, he noted, "that that international agency first backed real political failures"—the currency board policies of the 1990s—and then "wouldn't give one penny of aid to [help us] overcome the crisis or to restructure the debt."

For a long time, Kirchner explained, "we have been instructed in impotence and told that we can't do anything.... They wanted to instill in our soul the certainty that reality is untouchable.... They wanted to make us believe that not to do anything new is the only realistic option." But now, he warned, the Argentine President will use his "popular mandate" to act as a protagonist, in the best interests of Argentina's people.It's the Global System

Despite their economic policy differences, the process involving Argentina and Brazil is complex, precisely because of the existing conditions of global financial meltdown, combined with the political upheaval taking place in Washington, D.C.

Lyndon LaRouche remarked on Dec. 16 that Ibero-American governments all know that the Bush Administration is not in the greatest shape, and they are taking steps to free themselves of as many sources of threat as possible, and get some degree of management over their own affairs. While prepayment to the IMF may take the form of a concession, he said, these are concessions to end concessions. "They are saying, 'We did this nice thing by paying you. You demanded it; now why don't you be reasonable?' "

Moreover, LaRouche explained, the very interesting aspect to this is that the IMF is no longer the creditor. There is a fiduciary relationship between the IMF and these countries, but no such relationship exists between debtors and private interests, many of whose alleged debts are of very dubious character. So, the ability to impose regulation on these countries' internal balances is ended, LaRouche underscored. "None of these creditors has the power to demand—that is, with the force of regulatory authority—that the debtors obey." They have no judicial authority.

This makes synarchist financier interests very nervous. They don't like the reports that the Brazilian and Argentine Presidents discussed their actions beforehand, first at their bilateral meeting Nov. 30 in Puerto Iguazú, Brazil, and then with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez during the Dec. 8-9 Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market) summit in Uruguay. Chávez's role in this decision was to agree to substantially increase his purchase of Argentina's public debt bonds, for which Kirchner thanked him in his Dec. 15 speech.

Reflecting the concerns of the synarchists, London's Financial Times fretted in its Dec. 16 edition that repayment by "two large borrowers" like Brazil and Argentina "raises fresh questions about how the Fund will pay for its operations at a time of low demand for its loans."'Harmonization of Interests'

In the current global context, financiers are fearful that the "heterodox" policy path that President Kirchner has outlined, especially in the wake of his solid victory in the Oct. 23 midterm elections, could affect developments in Brazil, where there is a raging brawl taking place over IMF policy. Members of Lula's own Cabinet—Vice President José Alencar, Chief of Staff Dilma Rouseff, and Industry and Trade Minister Luiz Furlan, among others—have publicly attacked the Palocci/Meirelles duo for savaging real production and living standards, with their lunatic policies of 18.75% interest rates and a primary budget surplus equivalent to 4.25% of Gross Domestic Product.

When the Argentine President fired Finance Minister Roberto Lavagna on Nov. 28 and replaced him with economist Felisa Miceli, president since 2003 of the state-run Banco de la Nación, it set off alarm bells at the IMF and among allied banking circles. Miceli had experience in devising state financing programs for public development projects, and unlike Lavagna, didn't buy the idea that orthodox austerity measures were the only way to combat Argentina's increasing inflation.

The Cabinet change was scrutinized carefully in Brazil. According to the Dec. 3 Brazilian daily O Globo, when IMF Deputy Managing Director Anne Krueger visited Brasilia on Dec. 1, she worriedly asked everyone she met, "Do you know anything about Felisa Miceli? Where she came from, and where she's going?" O Globo's columnist asked whether Miceli would become "the Dilma Roussef of the land of Kirchner," alluding to the firestorm that Lula's Chief of Staff set off on Nov. 9, with her barrage against her government's economic policy.

Argentina's state press agency Télam published on its website this author's article from EIR of Dec. 9, which includes LaRouche's analysis of, and support for, Kirchner's dumping of Lavagna.

To the horror of foreign bankers and free-marketeers, Kirchner and Miceli have not only become "interventionist," but have echoed the "harmony of interests" concept most identified with the great 19th-Century American System economist Henry C. Carey. Miceli used the term "harmonization of interests" on Dec. 2 in discussing price-reduction agreements reached with representatives of different economic sectors.

On Dec. 7, Kirchner told business leaders that he would fight growing inflation, not by imposing the IMF's recommended austerity measures, but by issuing a $1.5 billion credit line through the Banco de la Nación, for productive investment in purchase of capital goods for industry and agriculture. The ten-year loans carry subsidized interest rates.

But he also told the businessmen that they had a great "social responsibility" to ensure that their profit levels are balanced with protecting the General Welfare. "There are methodologies," he said, "that will allow us to reconcile interests, such that those who stay at home, those who work hard, will absolutely be protected by a responsible State," and by business, "with the responsible support" of workers and their organizations.

A code-red kind of alert has ripped across the country, bringing scientific installations, borders as well as beach revellers in Kerala and Goa and consulates within its ambit.

NEW DELHI: The Bangalore attack has put the fear of Bali into the hearts of India’s security organisations. With the terrorists involved still at large, there is growing apprehension of a Bali-type terrorist attack in the run-up to the New Year.

Therefore, a "code-red"kind of terror alert has ripped across the country, bringing scientific and sensitive installations, porous borders as well as beach revellers in Kerala and Goa and consulates within its ambit. In 2002, tourist spots in Bali were targeted by Al Qaida suicide bombers, who killed 202 people, mainly Australian tourists.

Border Security Force (BSF) has hiked security along India’s porous border with Nepal, banning crossings along unauthorised routes. Night patrolling has been intensified, and people are being frisked along the 1,125-km border. Security agencies on Friday asked their forces to remain extra vigilant. The Union home ministry sent an additional warning to all para-military forces to heighten the alert. Though no additional deployment has been made, the forces advised their personnel not to go on leave in the holiday period.

CRPF chief J K Sinha said: "The force has received the advisory for the general alert in the wake of the Bangalore incident. However, no additional deployment has been made. We have just asked our personnel to remain extra alert wherever they are deployed for specific security purposes."

Similar notes have also been sent by CISF to all its units as this force guards all the major airports and public sector undertakings’ pre-mises across the country.

LeT FOOTPRINT : The terrorist attack in Bangalore, which has the familiar Lashkar-e-Taiba footprint, may have effectively closed the door to any inventive diplomacy with Pakistan.

At the top levels in the Indian government, the assessment is gaining ground that Pakistan has refused to honour its commitment of January 6, 2004, to prevent terrorism against India from its territory.

The road downhill started with the aborted Ayodhya attack, strengthened after the Delhi blasts and repeated suicide attacks in Jammu and Kashmir but after the Bangalore attack, the government is only going to harden its stance on terrorism.

It’s a bitter pill for the Manmohan Singh government, which started its Pakistan account by actually keeping terrorism under the radar, hoping to make gains on the peace front.

After 29/10, Musharraf magnanimously offered to help India in the investigation if a Pakistani hand was detected in the blasts

LAHORE: ¡°The struggle for an independent Balochistan is part of the unfinished agenda of Partition,¡± claims B Raman, a retired Indian bureaucrat who works at the South Asia Analysis Group, an Indian think tank. The article written by the former cabinet secretary may reflect the roots of the latest Indo-Pak spat in which Islamabad and New Delhi took a swipe at each other over Balochistan, say analysts in Islamabad.

Mr Raman goes on to say that ¡°since the Baloch resistance is fighting its second war of independence (uprising of the 70s being the first), India should not hesitate to draw the world¡¯s attention towards the ruthless massacre of Baloch nationalists at the hands of the Pakistan Army so that they should draw inspiration from the Bangladesh struggle for independence and unite not only among themselves, but also with Sindhi nationalists, the Shias of Gilgit and Baltistan and the people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, who had seen how the Pakistan Army treated them as an expendable commodity after the recent earthquake in order to achieve their common objectives. Their strength will be in their unity. Disunity will be fatal.¡±

India¡¯s Ministry of External Affairs has picked up this theme and fired the first shot at Pakistan. Pakistan¡¯s Foreign Office responded with the statement: ¡°We are intrigued by this provocative statement at this time when both countries are engaged in the peace process to address all issues including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.¡±

Leading Baloch nationalist Senator Sanaullah Baloch told Daily Times that international forces could only exploit such a situation in their favour when such a situation existed in the first instance. ¡°People around the world who have their own interests to pursue can only benefit from the situation in Balochistan if the injustices continue to be inflicted on them and the army operation continues to suppress the genuine voice for their rights,¡± said Sanaullah Baloch on Wednesday. ¡°What is going on in Balochistan is not an operation or a crackdown, it¡¯s a war against the Baloch who only want their genuine rights,¡± said the BNP leader. ¡°Islamabad has pushed us back to the wall and resentment will continue to increase if the iron hand does not stop whipping us,¡± he added.

The views were echoed by a senior Punjabi journalist and seasoned Balochistan watcher. ¡°I am not surprised by Raman¡¯s views. Whenever there is an internal problem people will take advantage of it and one can¡¯t get away with blaming outside forces. Obviously the Indians will want to poke their nose in if there is already trouble on the ground here. When the people¡¯s genuine desire for economic and political rights are being crushed the way they are then you create more rebels than you kill. However, I am surprised by the way India has openly meddled in our internal affairs. Normally, states are circumspect about the things they plan to do. Moreover, the statement from India was absolutely at cross-purposes of the ongoing peace process. Obviously Balochistan is our internal business, but let us start handling our own business,¡± he said.

December 29, 2005

BANGALORE, DEC 29: After 12 hours of groping in the dark for clues on yesterday’s attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus, investigators today ran into remnants of the attacker’s gun-blazing march.

A khaki chest pouch, a travel bag, the AK-56 used for the attack, and a blue paper napkin with a few Urdu words written on it provided some insights into the origin and the affiliations of the attacker.

‘‘The words on the note were not decipherable. They were like half words. We have sent it to Delhi as well for deciphering,’’ DGP B S Sial said.

In the pouch, found dumped close to the outer boundary wall of the campus, were three live hand grenades of foreign make, three loaded AK-56 magazines with a total of 90 bullets of foreign make, one live SLR cartridge of Indian make and one live cartridge used for pistols like the 7.63 Mauser.

In the pouch were also four dried dates—associated with Pakistan-trained militants.

In the black travel bag, the police found a pair of old jeans with the brand name Inigo, size 34, of a length likely to be worn by a six-ft tall person. In the bag was also, what police say, is a pair of jacket shoulder straps that were cut with scissors. The bag and pouch were dumped at the periphery wall by the terrorist before he scaled it to get out of the campus, police said. A monkey cap was also found. DGP Sial and Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh indicated the attack could be the handiwork of Pakistan-trained terrorists. ‘‘The presence of the khajurs and the modus operandi indicate that,’’ Sial said. ‘‘There is no reason for us to believe there was a second weapon used. As of now, it was only one attacker,’’ Additional CP H C Kishore Chandra said.

Indian security apparatus in Bangalore collapsed as the terrorists ran for cover after striking hard at Indian Institute of Science and cops squabble among themselves losing most of vital information.

According to media reports, the squabble in the top police brass in the State over creating an independent internal security squad for ‘information gathering and disseminating operation’ has resulted in police groping in dark, hours after terrorists attacked the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Wednesday evening.

The idea was mooted in 2003, after realising that Bangalore was turning out to be a soft target of terrorists from being a safe hideout.

The Government decided to create a separate force on the lines with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of USA, which will act independently.

As per the move, many wings of the police department, including Anti Terrorist Cell, coastal security, internal security under the new force, drugs and narcotics, all terrorist activities and Naxal activities.

An officer of the rank of ADGP was posted and the Government wanted to shift the office of internal security wing outside the police headquarters to avoid any interference. The proposal included separate recruitment and training to the force.

Among the proposed wings, anti-terrorist and coastal security wings directly report to DG&IGP, the internal security comes under intelligence.

Sensing that the new proposal would curtail the importance of the coveted posts and create a new power centre, the proposal received a stiff resistance from top police officers.

The proposal was sent back to Home Ministry, requesting to delete coastal security, anti-terrorist squad, internal security and drugs & narcotics from the proposal.

Since then, the internal security wing turned out to be another top-heavy wing, without any infrastructure.

The whole proposal was a well thought idea after analysing the security threats to the City since 2000. Till then, the City was considered to be a safe hideout for the extremists like ULFA, LTTE and Naxalites.

However, the police received first hint over terrorists targeting Bangalore in 1998, when ISI backed Mumbai Mafiosis, on VIP abduction mission were arrested in KG Halli. Later, Pakistan based Deendar Anjuman, involved in series of Church blast were arrested in Bangalore. Since then, there had been many indications that Bangalore was in the hit list of terrorists.

A section of police officers are disappointed with the internal security wing not coming through.

“With the present growth, Bangalore needs a different kind of policing, rather than the traditional constabulary”.

“The police, trained in crime investigation are used for various works like door keeping, traffic management, law and order, passport verification and so on”.

“Hardly any professionalism is exhibited in handling the police force,'''' they said.

“The State security is another aspect. In gathering intelligence, there is a lot of duplications. Since the State intelligence works more for political bosses, the security should be separated from it,'''' they contend.

New Delhi, Dec 29: Vital defence, nuclear and scientific installations were today put under high security cover along with top scientists with deployment of quick reaction teams in the wake of the terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

Defence Research and Development Organization scientists, including those relating to India's missile programmes, in Delhi, Hyderbad, Pune, Kanpur, Gwalior and Bangalore were provided additional personal security.

Quick reaction teams were deployed at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Aircraft Development Agency(ADA), IAF training command headquarters as well as at Yelhanka air base near Bangalore.

Security was also beefed up at institutions like Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Information Technology parks in Bangalore, DRDO, Bharat Dynamics Limited establishments in Hyderabad.

The Indian Space Research Organization sounded a red alert at all its institutions across the country including its headquarter in Bangalore.

The security cover for the next session of the Indian Science Congress, to be held in Hyderabad in January, has been reviewed and more stringent measures would be put in place, officials said in Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to inaugurate the Congress, to be attended by more than 100 scientists from home and abroad, on January three. President A P J Abdul Kalam is scheduled to address the Congress on January five.

IISc attack shows inaction by police on intelligence inputs?

Was the attack on the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) yet another a glaring example of failure on the part of the police to act on general inputs provided by the Intelligence Bureau?

According to a senior official in the Union Home Ministry, there were intelligence inputs as latest as last week when Karanatka and Andhra Pradesh police were sent a report that Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were attempting to target Information Technology park and other scientific installations in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

In fact, a report also said militants had carried out a recee of the Information Technology park in Bangalore and also tried to target the Infosys chief N R Narayan Murthy in March and April this year, the official said.

Pakistan-based LeT had announced in its annual congregation last year at Muridkee, Pakistan, that it would like to target India's IT and scientific installations.

An information was recently shared with Karanatka and Andhra Pradesh police that LeT militants might attempt to carry out their activities in these two states. The report was based on the interrogation of two Lashker militants.

The officials however said there was no input that the IISc would be targetted.

Karnataka DGP B S Sial had said yesterday that there was no input from the Intelligence Bureau about the possibility of the attack on IISc.

The headlines of this short story, factually told, run like this. 'Hindus worship 'statues', not 'deities'.' 'Hindu God cannot have capital 'G' and have to be content with the ordinary letter 'g' as, unlike the Gods in Abrahamic faiths, there is no one God for Hindus'. 'Who in sixth standard cares whether Ramayana was written before or after the Mahabharata'.

This scandalous depiction of Hindus, their faith and history is not the tirade of evangelicals luring Hindus to their faith. But, this is how some US scholars who supported the demeaning descriptions of Hindus and India in textbooks proposed by the California Department of Education (CDE) defended their contents when Hindus protested and sought corrections. Since the US scholars were not Hindus, their defence of the books lacked credibility. To fill the credibility gap, Indian seculars stepped in, led by Romila Thapar; they jointly petitioned the CDE that the Hindu protest against the textbooks was actually the protest of the 'Hindutva forces'. Hence, the corrections suggested by them should be disregarded.

The issue is whether what Hindus say is true or not. Does the truth lose its value because Hindus bring it out? Fortunately the CDE, after giving some anxious moments to Hindus, dismissed the seculars' petition and accepted the corrections that Hindus had sought, almost entirely. Now, some further detail.

The controversy was about the proposed textbooks on India and Hinduism for 6th standard school children. After the book publishers had submitted preliminary editions of the books, according to procedure the CDE called for comments and corrections from those concerned. The Hindu community in California, after months of work, submitted some 170 corrections - ''edits'' as the CDE would call them - for improving eight of the 10 textbooks. This is where the secular megaphones stepped in to exert to perpetuate the demeaning references to Hindus in the textbooks.

Dr Michael Witzel, a Harvard University professor who is undeniably anti-Hindu and thus an icon of Indian seculars, charged that the Hindu community's corrections were motivated by 'Hindutva forces'. He warned the CDE that it 'would lead without fail to an international educational scandal' if accepted. Romila Thapars of secular India joined as co-petitioners of Witzel, making it a kind of 'confession' on behalf of Hindus. This forced the CDE to appoint a last minute 'Content Review Panel' which comprised three scholars including Witzel himself. The panel rejected 58 of the Hindu edits.

But the Californian Curriculum Commission decided to accept all the corrections of the Hindus adding a rider that the Witzel panel's 58 rejections be reviewed one by one. In the commission an evangelist member supported Witzel, but two others abstained on grounds of lack of expertise.

While discussing the Witzel objections, the Curriculum Commissioner took the position that the Hindus should be able to recognise their religion when they read the textbooks. On the much insisted and the equally contested Aryan invasion issue, a compromise was suggested that instead of the word 'invasion' the word 'migration' could be substituted as there was no evidence of violent invasion. But the commissioner said that hard evidence from DNA research, which is more reliable than the study of historians, proved there was no 'migration' also. Finally, the commission agreed to allow this much to be said, namely, 'that some historians believe there was an Aryan invasion'.

The commission accepted that the Hindus worship 'deities', the equivalent of 'murti' in Sanskrit, not 'statues' and also allowed the use capital 'G' for the Hindu God saying that the same Hindu God has several forms. It agreed that the Hindus go to temples to 'worship'. It said that when the epic Ramayana was written is obviously important to the Hindus and so, that the writing of Ramayana pre-dated Mahabharata needs to be stated in the text books.

Yes, the Hindus got almost all that they wanted. But was it a favour done by the CDE to Hindus? No. The CDE merely applied the rules it had made for evaluating textbooks of different religious or national groups. This is what the CDE rules mandate: the evaluation is to enable all students to 'become aware and accept religious diversity', while remaining 'secure' in their own 'religious belief'.

To achieve this 'the diversity of religious beliefs held' in US and elsewhere should be depicted 'without displaying bias toward or prejudice against any of those beliefs'. No religious belief or practice 'may be held to ridicule'; no religious group be 'portrayed as inferior'. 'Beliefs or practices' should 'not be presented' 'to encourage or discourage disbelief', nor indoctrinate. The rules are common for all, the majority Protestants and the Rest, the minorities.

While CDE commission has concluded that there is no evidence of Aryan invasion, it is still ridiculed as a 'saffron' view to deny Aryan invasion here in India. In secular India, the views of scholars who are known as secular, not the facts, are decisive. That is why Aryan invasion is still the official view of history despite total absence of any evidence whatsoever. The secular US has thus overruled the anti-Hindu views of secular Indians. Paradoxically, the 'secular' US seems kinder to Hindus than 'secular' India.

by B.RamanProfessor (Retd) M C Puri, Professor Emeritus in the Mathematics Department of Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was killed and four serving scientists were injured, reported seriously, when an unidentified gunman opened fire indiscriminately on a group of scientists, largely Indian with some foreigners, as they were coming out of a conference hall in the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IIS) campus in Bangalore on December 28,2005 The victims, who were attending an international conference on research relating to infrastructure, were reportedly walking to an adjacent building for dinner at the end of the day's proceedings.2. The report on the attack carried by the "Hindu", the prestigious daily of Chennai, gives the following details: “Police said that at 7-15 PM, a man wearing a camouflage jacket started firing randomly with automatic rifle when delegates at an international conference of the Operational Research Society of India were coming out of the J. N. Tata Auditorium in the IIS Campus." "Reports said that the man fired at an adjoining laboratory and a car and started running towards the parking lot on the right side of the auditorium. Police could not confirm reports that there were two other persons and that they had come in an Ambassador car." "The police found five magazines, believed to be from an AK-47 rifle, a used grenade, a live grenade and spent bullets in front of the auditorium." 3. The person or persons responsible for the attack have not so far (9 AM Indian time on December 29) been arrested or identified. The incident has coincided with the reported shifting of Abu Salem, a member of the mafia group headed by Karachi-based Dawood Ibrahim, to Bangalore to undergo a lie detector and other forensic tests in connection with the investigation into his alleged involvement in the Mumbai explosions of March, 1993, in which nearly 250 innocent civilians were killed. The explosions were got carried out by Dawood Ibrahim, then based in Dubai, with the help of some Mumbai-based Muslims, who were taken to Pakistan via Dubai and got trained and armed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Abu Salem, who was arrested by the Portuguese authorities, was recently extradited by them to India after he and Monica Bedi, a woman companion of his, had completed a prison sentence in Portugal after having been convicted on charges of entering Portugal with false travel documents. There is so far no evidence to connect the shooting incident with the shifting of Abu Salem.4. Sleeper cells of pro-Al Qaeda jihadi terrorist organisations of Pakistan and Bangladesh operating in South India have come to the notice of the Police from time to time. The most active in South India has been the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) followed by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI). Occasionally, there have also been reports of the presence and activities of other Pakistan-based organisations such as the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), an indigenous Kashmiri organisation whose Amir, Syed Salahuddin, operates from Pakistan, and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), a Pakistani organisation like the LET and the HUJI.5. Of these organisations, the LET has been the most active. While its activities in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and other States of North India are controlled from its headquarters at Muridke, near Lahore, in Pakistan, its activities in Western and South India are controlled by its headquarters in Saudi Arabia and occasionally from Dubai. Its sleeper cells in South India operate either under the name of the LET or under other names such as the Muslim Defence Force (MDF) in Tamil Nadu. While the activities of the HUJI in J&K and other parts of North India are controlled by its headquarters in Pakistan, its activities in southern Thailand, Myanmar, and East and South India are believed to be controlled by its branch office in Bangladesh.6. The LET, the HUJI and the JEM, all of whom are members of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish People, look upon J&K, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and Junagadh in Gujarat as rightfully belonging to Pakistan. They want to "liberate" them from Indian control as a first step in their plan to "liberate" the Muslims of North and South India and incorporate their "homelands" in the so-called Islamic Caliphate advocated by bin Laden. They also similarly want to "liberate" the Muslim majority areas of Sri Lanka's Eastern Province and ultimately incorporate them into the so-called Islamic Caliphate.7. In addition to such political and religious reasons, their focus on South India has also a strongly economic angle. That is the large concentration of information technology (IT) and outsourcing companies, Indian as well as foreign, in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. A defining characteristic of the post-9/11 terrorist strikes of Al Qaeda and the IIF has been to step up acts of economic terrorism. The terrorist strikes in Bali, Mombasa, on the French oil tanker Limburg, Casablanca, Istanbul, and Egypt had a strong economic motivation.8. Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, in the calculation of the terrorists and their sponsors in Pakistan, are attractive targets for acts of economic terrorism. Successful acts of economic terrorism there could----so they believe--- affect an important source of India's foreign exchange earnings, keep foreign IT companies away from India and affect India's stock market, which attracts a large volume of foreign institutional investment based on the value of the shares of the IT companies. Since Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in October, 1999, he has embarked on a programme for the diversification of the Pakistani economy, which is now mainly dependent on the export of textiles, sports and leather goods. In this connection, considerable attention is being paid, with Chinese assistance, to develop Pakistan's IT capability and attract foreign software and outsourcing companies to Pakistan. The ISI too calculates that uncertainties in the minds of foreign IT and outsourcing companies about security conditions in South India could benefit Pakistan.9. After the neutralisation of a sleeper cell of the LET in Delhi in March last, the Delhi Police had repeatedly been sounding wake-up calls about the plans of the jihadi terrorists to target IT companies in Bangalore. Media reports have also been speaking of a number of hoax threats addressed to IT companies in Bangalore since March. The recent hoax message of an attempt by the Al Qaeda to blow up the Indian Parliament had also reportedly originated from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, a hotbed of the activities of the Al Ummah, which had organised a number of serial blasts at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in February, 1998. All these were not hoax calls from pranksters trying to create a sensation. These were probably hoax messages of suspected jihadi terrorists, apparently trying to test the reflexes of the security authorities and create in their mind a hoax fatigue.10. Why did the persons responsible for the December 28 incident target the scientists attending an international conference? It does not appear to have been a targeted attempt to kill any particular scientist though media reports speak of the presence of some space scientists in the conference. South India in general and Bangalore in particular not only have a large concentration of IT experts, but also famous scientists. How to strengthen physical security in South India without creating unnecessary alarm and nervousness, which could economically prove counter-productive? This is a question which needs urgent attention from the Govt. of India and the four State Governments.11. My past articles having some relevance and an article of Miss Smiline Gini of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter, are appended below for ready reference. Paper no. 306 03. 09. 2001

BOSNIA & HYDERABADby B.RamanThe Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the militant wing of the Pakistan-based Markaz Dawa wal Irshad (MDI), has been behind most of the recent incidents of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). It describes its objective as three-fold: firstly, to "liberate" J&K and have it merged with Pakistan; secondly, to similarly "liberate" Hyderabad and Junagardh, which it considers as rightfully belonging to Pakistan, and have them brought under Pakistan's sovereignty; and, thirdly, to "liberate" the Muslims living in other parts of India and create two more "homelands" for the Muslims of the sub-continent, one in North India and the other in the South.The LET, along with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), both of them of the Afghan war vintage, was also in the forefront in organising assistance for the Muslim separatists of Southern Philippines, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Dagestan. Since the early 1990s, both the organisations had been collecting funds for the Muslim separatists in these areas, smuggling to them arms and ammunition and had even sent their own cadres to fight for the separatists.An assessment disseminated in October, 1994, by a news organisation called Compass had stated as follows: "Arab "Afghans" have been moving further a field as well. Some are in Bosnia, helping fellow Muslims fight the Christian Serbs. Between 200 and 300 of these veterans of the Afghan war, including non-Arab Muslims, are based in Zenica in Bosnia, where they are widely feared. Hundreds of "Afghans" have made their way to Bosnia. The number of non-Bosnian Muslims in the military is estimated at between 500 and 1,000 from a dozen countries in the Middle East. From all accounts, they have fought with some distinction. Some 300 "Afghans," organized into a unit known as "the Guerrillas," operate with the Bosnian 3rd Corps in Zenica. Algerian leader Kamar Kharban, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, has visited Bosnia several times over the last two years."The 'Afghans' and other Muslim volunteers have also been a source of friction with the Bosnians, who are largely secular Muslims. The outsiders' religious zeal and arrogant commitment to their holy war has angered their hosts. But many of the volunteers represent wealthy organizations or countries whose support the beleaguered Bosnians count on. The "Afghans" are believed to have been behind the murder of British aid worker Paul Goodall on Jan. 27, 1994, near Zenica. Three Muslim volunteers, all Arabs carrying fake Pakistani passports, were shot dead by Bosnian military police at a roadblock near Sarajevo. Three others were arrested by police for questioning in the murder. The Al-Kifah, or Struggle, Refugee Center in New York, which used to recruit and raise funds for Mujahedeen headed for Afghanistan, last year announced it was switching its operations to Bosnia. It was established in the mid-1980s by Egyptian Mustafa Rahman as a joint venture with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, spiritual leader of Gamaat al-Islamiya."In 1996, in a book titled "Offensive in the Balkans", Mr. Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Republican TASK FORCE ON TERRORISM AND UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE of the US House of Representatives, wrote as follows on the "Bosnian Jehad":"...The build-up of new Islamist units was completed in Bosnia- Herzegovina in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) and Islamist international terrorism, and include the first organized deployment of MARTYRDOM FORCES (THAT IS, SUICIDE TERRORISTS), both veteran Arabs and newly trained Bosnians."These new activities were conducted under the guidance of the new Islamist headquarters in Teheran and Karachi, decided upon during the Popular Arab Islamic Conference (PAIC) convened in Khartoum in the first days of April 1995. The Conference decided to establish "new Islamist representative offices" for the international Islamist movement. The new regional center in Tehran will be responsible for Islamist activities (training, equipping, operational support, etc.) in Bosnia-Herzegovina (as well as other politically-sensitive hot spots), while the comparably new center in Karachi would be responsible for Islamist activities in Albania (and Kosovo). Furthermore, this overall Islamist effort and build-up is not just to cope with the situation in the Balkans, but also to be used as A SOUND BASE FOR THE ISLAMISTS' ABILITY TO EXPAND OPERATIONS INTO WESTERN EUROPE - mainly France, the UK and Germany..."Meanwhile, the leadership of the Armed Islamic Movement (AIM) was formally notified in mid-May 1995 that the "Mujahedin Battalion is an officially-recognized army battalion of the Bosnian army. It is comprised of non-Bosnian volunteers, called ANSAR, along with Bosnian Mujahedin. The formal name of the unit is "Armija Republike BiH, 3 Korpus, Odred el-Mujahedin". The commander, an Egyptian "Afghan", was identified as "Ameer Kateebat al-Mujahedin Abu al-Ma'ali" - a religious-military title and a nom the guerre. The Islamist force is based in Travnik and Zenica areas in central Bosnia..."...The Khartoum, Sudan-based National Islamic Front (NIF) - the political umbrella organization to which AIM answers - did not take long to look for the appropriate solutions for the challenges in Bosnia- Herzegovina..."...Being a theologically driven movement, the NIF supreme leadership sought legal precedents to serve as a guideline for the nature of jihad which they believe should be waged in Bosnia, Palestine, and Kashmir. In mid-August 1995, Khartoum informed the AIM senior officials in the front line - in such places as Sarajevo, Muzzaffarabad (Pakistan), and Damascus - of the precedent found."The NIF leadership pointed to the text of "fatwa" originally issued by the Islamic Religious Conference held in El-Obaeid, State of Kordofan (Sudan), on April 27, 1993. It is presently used in Khartoum, at the highest levels of NIF, as the precedent-setting text for legislating relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in areas where the infadels are not willing to be simply subdued by the Muslim forces. The following places - Palestine, Bosnia, and Kashmir - are stated explicitly as areas to where the principles outlined by this fatwa are most applicable."...Meanwhile, Sarajevo's apocalyptic view of the future fits closely with the Islamists' growing anticipation of "gloom and doom" in their relations with the West..."...The AIM senior officials in Sarajevo reported in mid-May 1995 the completion of "a new camp called Martyrs' Detachment", in order to absorb many newly-arriving Mujahedin. These SUICIDE TERRORISTS, including at least a dozen Bosnian Muslims, graduated from an intensive course in training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the early Spring of 1995. These Bosnians along with Arab "Afghans" were deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina for both operations in the Balkans as well as, should the need arise, operations in Western Europe (specially France, the UK, Italy, and Belgium). ("Afghan" is the term used to describe those fighters trained and tested in the Afghanistan civil war. Most are of Arab, North African or Pakistani origin)."High-level Arab sources in the Middle East stressed that these Bosnia-based Mujahedin, especially the suicide terrorists, are being organized as a new force, forming a center for operations throughout Europe. Moreover, by the summer of 1995, the Islamist infrastructure in Bosnia-Herzegovina had already constituted the core of a new training center for European Muslims."The first report to emerge on the "Arab-Afghan" Mujahideen presence in Bosnia was an interview accorded to the "Time" Magazine by one Commander Abu Abdel Aziz in 1992. It included a picture of the commander in his henna-dyed beard and Afghan style fatigue. After the "Time", "al-Sharq al-Awsat", a Saudi-owned, London-based daily, ran a front-page story on Abu Abdel Aziz and his activities in Bosnia.In August 1994, "Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqeem (The Straight Path)", an Islamic journal published in Pakistan (Issue No. 33), carried an interview with Abu Abdel Aziz. The journal, without identifying his nationality, reported that Abu Abdel Aziz spoke perfect Urdu and that he had spent extended periods in Kashmir. Abu Abdel Aziz's forces were, unlike other Islamic freelancers, part of the seventh battalion of the Bosnian Army (SEDMI KORPUS, ARMIJA REPUBLIKE BH, it was said.In the interview, he made the following points:* "I was one of those who heard about Jihad in Afghanistan when it started. I used to hear about it, but was hesitant about (the purity and intention of) this Jihad. One of those who came to our land (presumably Saudi Arabia) was Sheikh Dr. Abdallah Azzam. I heard him rallying the youth to come forth and (join him) to go to Afghanistan. This was in 1984 -- I think. I decided to go and check the matter for myself. This was the beginning (of my journey with) Jihad. Then the conquest of Kabul came.* "A new Jihad started in Bosnia, (we moved there), and we are with it. As to Arab Mujahideen (in Bosnia), they do not have a separate battalion. There is a battalion for non-Bosnian fighters. Arabs are a minority compared to those of the Mujahideen (gathered from around the World). This battalion is under a unified command and is called Kateebat al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Battalion), Odred "El-Mudzahidin" as they call them in Bosnian. Militarily, it has a link to the Bosnian government under the general command of the Bosnian Armed Forces. It is in fact part of the seventh battalion (SEDMI KORPUS, ARMIJA REPUBLIKE BH) of the Bosnian Army. I am a field commander under the "General Unified Armed Command". We have full jurisdiction in the region we are responsible for (Editor's note: Mostly central Bosnia). The general command of the Muslim forces wants to see results; it does not dictate strategy or action.* "I met several prominent Ulema. Among them Sheikh Nasir ad-Din al-Albani, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bin Baz and Sheikh Muhammad Bin Otheimin and others in the Gulf area. Sheikh Nasir ad-Din al-Albani is one of the great Ulema of this time and one seeks guidance in the light of his knowledge and view. (I say) in my last meeting with him, he was supportive of Jihad in Bosnia-Herzeg (as a religious duty). However, he told us not to attack - that is we, the Arab Mujahideen - since we were the smaller host The Sheikh was afraid we might get killed in large numbers if we engaged people in the fight. However, he requested that we dig in and be at the most advanced defense-lines (Khat ad-Difa al-Awwal) to defend those persecuted.* "The rest of the Ulema support Jihad by any means (defensive or offensive). You must understand that - militarily speaking - the number of those killed in defense is (far) higher than those killed in attack. This is due to the fact that in attack, clashes and skirmishes take place between Mujahideen and Kuffar (non-believers). The Kafir (unbeliever) does not throw himself arbitrarily in the cross-fire for fear of killing his companions. This fact lowers the number of the dead and this is the most important fact of the matter.* "Jihad in Kashmir is still going on. It is healthy. Our Kashmiri brothers have achieved a lot. Some of our Mujahideen brethren, whether Arab or (Ajam non-Arab), such as the Pakistanis and our brethren from South-East Asia, have also helped. Their actions have been very successful, especially in the lands under Indian government control. Mujahideen execute hit-and-run operations. However there is a lack of support by Islamic governments and a lack of media coverage by Islamic outlets, on the level of atrocity and destruction by the non-believers in those lands."Subsequently, this Abu Abdel Aziz appeared at a conference of the LET at its headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore, in November, 1994. He was introduced to the audience as an Indian Muslim living in Saudi Arabia, who was playing a heroic role in helping the Muslims of Bosnia in their fight against the Christian Serbs and in helping the Kashmiris fighting against the Government of India.Other reports indicated that in May 1995, like-minded fundamentalist groups formed a "Rapid Deployment Force" called "Katiba al–Mujahideen (Batallion of the Mujahideen) at a meeting held in the Philippines. The meeting was attended among others by al-Sheikh Abu Abdul Aziz, described as the Chief Commander of the 7th Brigade of Muslim forces in Bosnia, Salamat Hashan, the Chairman of the Moro Islamic Front (Philippines), Abdul Karim, Chairman of the Islamic Front (Eritrea) and Prof. Hafiz Mohd Saeed, Amir MDI (Pakistan). The meeting chalked out the following objectives- (a) nationalities and frontiers on the basis of races was an un-Islamic perception; (b) to work in support of Muslims in all those parts of the world where action was being taken against them; (c) the Mujahideen of the newly formed Katiba Al-Mujahideen would carry out militant operations and fight in Kashmir to eliminate un-Islamic perceptions of nationalities and frontiers.Abu Abdul Aziz had disappeared from public view since 1998. There were rumours in Islamic circles in Pakistan that he had been arrested by the Saudi authorities, apparently because of his suspected links with Osama bin Laden, who is against the Saudi monarchy.The Indian media has reported on August 30 about the arrest by the Hyderabad Police of one Abdul Aziz alias Ashrafi, who had fought in Bosnia and Chechnya. It needs to be verified whether the arrested person could be identical with the individual described in this article. (http://www.saag.org/papers4/paper306.html)Paper no. 77804. 09. 2003

JIHADI TERRORISM: The Saudi Connectionby B.RamanIn December 1993, coinciding with the first anniversary of the demolition of the Babri masjid at Ayodhya, there was a number of explosions in different railway trains in North India. The interrogation of one of the suspects arrested during the investigation revealed that the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had organised them.2. The suspect also alleged that C.A.M. Basheer, who was the President of the SIMI in the 1980s, had, along with one or two other members of the SIMI, attended a training course in the use of arms and ammunition and explosives in a camp of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) of Pakistan in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) run by one Salauddin, a Sudanese national, in the late 1980s. During the training, the JEI arranged a meeting between the SIMI activists and Lal Singh, alias Manjit Singh of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), Canada, who was then living in Lahore. Lal Singh, who was arrested by the Gujarat Police in the middle of 1992, is presently in jail.3. The JEI urged the SIMI and the ISYF to co-operate with each other for the "liberation" of the Sikhs of Punjab and the Kashmiris of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). The co-operation project was code-named "K-2", standing for Kashmir-Khalistan. It was also stated that Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the Amir of the JEI, had nominated Amirul Azim, the then Propaganda Secretary of the JEI, as the co-ordinator of the project.4. The suspect also stated that the JEI had asked Basheer to send more members of the SIMI to Pakistan for training, but he could not do so due to logistic problems. In the early 1990s, Amirul Azim, accompanied by Salauddin, the Sudanese instructor, entered India via Bangladesh and met Basheer and his associates for discussing their future plans. They were told that in view of the difficulties experienced by them in sending more activists to Pakistan for training, instructions had been given to Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), the Kashmiri terrorist organisation, which is a wing of the JEI, to train SIMI cadres in its camps in J&K itself. The SIMI was asked to send its future batches to J&K for training.5. Despite intensive searches by the police of different States, Basheer and his associates, who had allegedly undergone training in Pakistan, could not be arrested. Basheer, who must now be around 43, is from Parambayam in Kerala. After studying in the Union Christian College, Aluva, near Kochi, he worked for a brief while in the Safdarjung airport of New Delhi before taking to terrorism and absconding. Subsequent reports indicated that he had taken up residence in Saudi Arabia from where he was guiding the activities of the SIMI in India and organising its branches in other countries of the Gulf. In Saudi Arabia, he was also reported to have floated a new organisation called the Muslim Development Force.6. In 1992, the "Time" magazine of the US had carried an interview with one Commander Abu Abdel Aziz, with a picture of his in his henna-dyed beard and Afghan style fatigue. After the "Time", "al-Sharq al-Awsat", a Saudi-owned, London-based daily, ran a front-page story on Abu Abdel Aziz and his activities in Bosnia. In August 1994, "Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqeem (The Straight Path)", an Islamic journal published in Pakistan (Issue No. 33), carried an interview with Abu Abdel Aziz. The journal, without identifying his nationality, reported that Abu Abdel Aziz spoke perfect Urdu and that he had spent extended periods in Kashmir. It was stated that Abu Abdel Aziz's followers, believed to be mostly Indian Muslims from the Gulf, were part of the seventh battalion of the Bosnian Army (SEDMI KORPUS, ARMIJA REPUBLIKE BH).7. In the interview, he made the following points: * "I was one of those who heard about Jihad in Afghanistan when it started. I used to hear about it, but was hesitant about (the purity and intention of) this Jihad. One of those who came to our land (presumably Saudi Arabia) was Sheikh Dr. Abdallah Azzam. I heard him rallying the youth to come forth and (join him) to go to Afghanistan. This was in 1984 -- I think. I decided to go and check the matter for myself. This was the beginning (of my journey with) Jihad. Then the conquest of Kabul came.* “A new Jihad started in Bosnia, (we moved there), and we are with it. As to Arab Mujahideen (in Bosnia), they do not have a separate battalion. There is a battalion for non-Bosnian fighters. Arabs are a minority compared to those of the Mujahideen (gathered from around the World). This battalion is under a unified command and is called Kateebat al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Battalion), or "El-Mudzahidin" as they call them in Bosnian. Militarily, it has a link to the Bosnian government under the general command of the Bosnian Armed Forces. It is in fact part of the seventh battalion (SEDMI KORPUS, ARMIJA REPUBLIKE BH) of the Bosnian Army. I am a field commander under the "General Unified Armed Command". We have full jurisdiction in the region we are responsible for (Editor's note: Mostly central Bosnia). The general command of the Muslim forces wants to see results, it does not dictate strategy or action. * "I met several prominent Ulema. Among them Sheikh Nasir ad-Din al-Albani, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bin Baz and Sheikh Muhammad Bin Otheimin and others in the Gulf area. Sheikh Nasir ad-Din al-Albani is one of the great Ulema of this time and one seeks guidance in the light of his knowledge and view. (I say) in my last meeting with him, he was supportive of Jihad in Bosnia-Herzeg (as a religious duty). However, he told us not to attack - that is we, the Arab Mujahideen - since we were the smaller host The Sheikh was afraid we might get killed in large numbers if we engaged people in the fight. However, he requested that we dig in and be at the most advanced defense-lines (Khat ad-Difa al-Awwal) to defend those persecuted. * "The rest of the Ulema support Jihad by any means (defensive or offensive). You must understand that - militarily speaking - the number of those killed in defense is (far) higher than those killed in attack. This is due to the fact that in attack, clashes and skirmishes take place between Mujahideen and Kuffar (non-believers).The Kafir (unbeliever) does not throw himself arbitrarily in the cross-fire for fear of killing his companions. This fact lowers the number of the dead and this is the most important fact of the matter.* "Jihad in Kashmir is still going on. It is healthy. Our Kashmiri brothers have achieved a lot. Some of our Mujahideen brethren, whether Arab or (Ajam non-Arab), such as the Pakistanis and our brethren from South-East Asia, have also helped. Their actions have been very successful, especially in the lands under Indian government control. Mujahideen execute hit-and-run operations. However there is a lack of support by Islamic governments and a lack of media coverage by Islamic outlets, on the level of atrocity and destruction by the non-believers in those lands. " 8. Subsequently, this Abu Abdel Aziz appeared at a conference of the LET (Lashkar-e-Toiba) at its headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore, in November,1994. He was introduced to the audience as an Indian Muslim living in Saudi Arabia, who was playing a heroic role in helping the Muslims of Bosnia in their fight against the Christian Serbs and in helping the Kashmiris fighting against the Government of India.9. Other reports indicated that in May 1995, like-minded jihadi groups hadformed a "Rapid Deployment Force" called "Katiba (Kateebat?) Al –Mujahideen" (Batallion of the Mujahideen) at a meeting held in the Philippines. The meeting was attended among others by "al-Sheikh Abu Abdul Aziz," described as the Chief Commander of the 7th Brigade of Muslim forces in Bosnia, Salamat Hashan, the Chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Philippines), Abdul Karim, Chairman of the Islamic Front (Eritrea) and Prof. Hafiz Mohd Saeed, Amir MDI (Markaz Dawa Al Irshad, the political wing of the LET), Pakistan. "Al-Sheikh Abu Abdul Aziz" and Abu Abdel Aziz were probably identical, but one was not certain on the basis of available evidence.10. The meeting reportedly agreed on the following (a) nationalities and frontiers on the basis of races was an un-Islamic perception; (b) to work in support of Muslims in all those parts of the world where action was being taken against them; (c) the Mujahideen of the newly formed Kateebat Al-Mujahideen would carry out militant operations and fight in Kashmir to eliminate un-Islamic perceptions of nationalities and frontiers.11. Till 1997, Abu Abdel Aziz either used to attend the annual conventions of the LET at Muridke or his recorded speeches used to be telecast. He disappeared from public view thereafter. There were rumours in Islamic circles in Pakistan that he had been arrested by theSaudi authorities, apparently because of his suspected links with Osama bin Laden, who is against the Saudi monarchy. In August, 2001, the police of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh claimed to have arrested one Abdul Aziz alias Ashrafi, who had fought in Bosnia and Chechnya. From published reports, it was not clear whether they had questioned him about the identity of Abu Abdel Aziz and other Indian Muslims from the Gulf, who had allegedly fought in Bosnia and their subsequent whereabouts.12. The real identity of Abu Abdel Aziz still remains a mystery. If he was an Indian Muslim living in Saudi Arabia, as claimed by the LET, what was his real name, to which part of India he belonged, what was his political affiliation, did he have any links with the SIMI? Of the five Pakistani jihadi organisations, which are members of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), only the LET follows the Palestinian example of concealing the real identity of its jihadis by giving them "kuniyats" or assumed names chosen after the names of the companions of the holy Prophet. The Palestinians follow the practice of not giving the same kuniyat to more than one person. When that person dies, they do not allot that kuniyat to any other jihadi. But the LET follows the practice of allotting the kuniyat of one "martyr", after his death, to another jihadi. It is not, therefore, unusual to find more than one jihadi of the LET being referred to by the same kuniyat.13. All that one could conjecture was that Basheer could not be operating under the kuniyat of Abu Abdel Aziz because the Pakistani Urdu media projected him as operating from Saudi Arabia since the early 1980s, whereas Basheer was reported to have moved over to Saudi Arabia only in the early 1990s, possibly after the Babri masjid demolition.14. From the various reports received till last year, one could make the following surmise without being totally confident of the entire accuracy of it:* There were at least two Indian Muslims operating from Saudi Arabia and associated with jihadi terrorism.* One of them referred to by Pakistani jihadis as Abu Abdel Aziz was linked to the LET. He had played what the jihadis considered as a legendary role in organising jihad in Bosnia and was also closely involved in assisting the jihadis in J&K.* There was no evidence to believe that Abu Abdel Aziz was connected with the SIMI.* The SIMI's links were more with the JEI of Pakistan than with the LET. Unlike the LET, a pro-Wahabi organisation which does not admit women into its ranks and does not use them for its operations, the SIMI admitted women and used them. There were believed to be about 300 women in the SIMI's ranks, some of them reportedly highly educated.* Basheer co-ordinated the the activities of the SIMI in India and the Gulf from Saudi Arabia.15. After the Gujarat riots of last year and coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, reports started circulating in Pakistan that some of the Indian and Pakistani Muslims working in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, had started a drive for the collection of funds to be utilised for assisting the Muslim victims of the riots and for mounting acts of punishment terrorism in India to avenge the killings of Muslims in Gujarat. Compilations of Indian media reports about the anti-Muslim atrocities in Gujarat and video recordings of these atrocities were used as part of this fund collection drive.16. In December last year, the Tamil Nadu Police claimed to have unearthed a new organisation, apparently inspired and controlled by jihadi elements in Saudi Arabia, called the Muslim Defence Force (MDF). It was not clear whether this was identical with the Muslim Development Force of Basheer. Published reports about the Tamil Nadu Police's detection indicated as follows:* One Abu Hamsa,alias Abdul Bari, an Indian Muslim living in Saudi Arabia and associated with the LET, and one Abu Omar, a Pakistani Muslim working there, had together formed the MDF after the Gujarat riots. They had also met a Muslim leader from Tamil Nadu who had gone to Saudi Arabia on haj pilgrimage.* On his return to Tamil Nadu, this leader held a clandestine meeting at Tenkasi in Tiruvelveli district, which was attended by about 30 Muslims. At this meeting, plans for organising MDF activities in India were discussed.* Subsequently, two of those, who had attended the Tenkasi meeting, went to Sri Lanka (the Eastern Province?), where they were to have another meeting with Abu Hamsa, but he did not turn up from Saudi Arabia. They, therefore, returned to Tamil Nadu without meeting him.* Abu Hamsa alias Abdul Bari was wanted in connection with an explosion in Andhra Pradesh. He had given instructions to his contacts in Tamil Nadu to organise the activities of the MDF and also to float another organisation called New Vision to propagate Islam amongst the so-called backward classes of the Hindu community and recruit them for jihad.* The associates of Abu Hamsa in Tamil Nadu were instructed to form an elite force to establish hide-outs and protect jihadi terrorists visiting Tamil Nadu and to recruit youth for training in jihad at an undisclosed destination in the Gulf.* Amongst those arrested by the Tamil Nadu police during their investigation into the activities of the MDF was Noohu Thambi Hamid Bakri, described as a suspected sympathiser of the LET. He was the principal of the Ayesha Siddique Arabic College for Women at Kayalpattinam and also the President of the All-India Tauhid Jamath Federation. He also used to be associated with an organisation called the Kayal Islamic Defence Force, which is now believed to be dormant.* It was Hamid Bakri, accompanied by one Zakkaria, who had met Abu Hamsa in Saudi Arabia and subsequently gone to Sri Lanka for another meeting, which did not materialise.In November, 2002; Zakkaria was allegedly in receipt of Rs.1, 50,000 from Abu Hamsa in Saudi Arabia through hawala.17. None of the reports relating to the unearthing of the activities of the MDF in Tamil Nadu had referred to any role of Basheer in this connection. However, his name has again cropped up as possibly amongst the dramatis personae associated with the series of explosions in Mumbai since last December.18. It should be evident that for some years now there have been indicators of the cladestine creation of a jihadi web in Mumbai, south India and possibly in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, with the SIMI and the LET playing an active role in this matter, either in tandem or separately of each other. It is also evident that much of the inspiration and financial support for this came not from Pakistan, but from Indian and Pakistani jihadi activists in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.19. Important breakthroughs in connection with identifying the various strands of this web had been made by the police of Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, but no attempt would appear to have been made for a co-ordinated effort to investigate and neutralise this web. One has the impression that each police has been investigating independently and there has not been adequate sharing and co-ordination not only amongst the police and other security agencies of different States, but also between the agencies of the Government of India and those of the affected States.20. A similar state of affairs seemed to have prevailed in the US as brought out by the joint Congressional investigation into the terrorist strikes of 9/11. If attention is not paid to rectifying the matter in India, we are in for a nasty surprise as the USA was on 9/11. (http://www.saag.org/papers8/paper778.html)Paper no. 77328. 08. 2003

25/8, MUMBAI: The Jihadi Icebergby B.RamanThe series of explosions since December last in Mumbai, culminating in the twin blasts of August 25, 2003, which killed over 50 innocent civilians, should be a matter of great concern to our policy-makers and public opinion for three reasons.2. First, there seems to be a deterioration in the preventive and investigative capability of our security agencies in matters relating to terrorism outside Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).3. Second, despite the reports of the task forces on the revamping of the intelligence apparatus and internal security management set up by the Government of India in 2000 and those of the three National Security Advisory Boards, there seems to be no significant improvement in our counter-terrorism capability.4.Third, despite the periodic claims by Government spokesmen about the successes of our security agencies in detecting and neutralisingdozens of jihadi terrorist and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) modules, dozens moreof them continue to operate undetected and with their motivation and capability for action undiminished.5. Effective counter-terrorism depends on the ability to collect preventive intelligence, effective physical security to deny success to the terrorists even if intelligence fails and a thorough investigation of the acts of terrorism committed in order to identify those responsible, their supporters and their networks and take action against them.6. Penetration of terrorist organisations for the collection of preventive human intelligence (HUMINT) about their plans is very difficult. No intelligence agency in the world has effectively done so---not even in Israel, despite some occasional successes. A HUMINT gap is, therefore, inevitable. This has to be made good by effective technical intelligence (TECHINT) coverage and competent investigation of the acts of terrorism committed. Evidence collected during the investigation through the interrogation of captured suspects and following up the clues provided by them could result ina fund of actionable intelligence.7. The successes scored so far by the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in arresting or killing some of the senior leaders of Al Qaeda would not have been possible but for the excellent TECHINT coverage provided by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the clues collected during the interrogation of those arrested.8. One has the impression that the Mumbai Police has not had the benefit of similar TECHINT back-up either from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which is responsible for internal security, including counter-terrorism, or the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), which deals with the external ramifications of jihadi terrorism.9. The excellent TECHINT support provided by the IB and the R&AW was one of the factors, which facilitated the success of our counter-terrorism operations in Punjab. One has not seen evidence of similar support in Mumbai. It is not clear what is this due to. Temporary weakening of our TECHINT capability due to the reported decision to set up a new TECHINT agency, which is still in the process of finding its feet? The non-use of modern means of communications such as telephones, the internet etc by the terrorists in our territory for communicating with each other? Inhibitions arising from two different political formations being in power in New Delhi and Mumbai? One does not have the answers.10. Even in the absence of adequate TECHINT back-up, the Mumbai police should have been able to get clues of a preventive nature during the investigation of the previous blasts. The importance of thorough investigation in identifying and neutralising perpetrators of terrorism was vividly demonstrated after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE in 1991, after the Mumbai blasts of March 1993 by the Dawood Ibrahim gang and its terrorist associates and after the Coimbatore blasts of February,1998, in Tamil Nadu by Al Ummah.11. The absence of similar results after the explosions in Mumbai since December last is an indicator of a possible deterioration in the investigative capability of the Mumbai Police since March,1993. The same Police, which did so brilliantly in investigating the blasts of March, 1993, seems to be groping in the dark since December. What is it due to? Political interference in its functioning? Its hands being tied in the investigation of acts of jihadi terrorism due to a misplaced anxiety on the part of the ruling establishment in Mumbai not to antagonise the members of the Muslim community by too vigorous an action against the terrorists, many of whom have come from their ranks? Lack of adequate co-ordination between the central and state agencies due to their political masters being from opposite sides of the political spectrum?12. The same political party was in power in New Delhi as well as in Punjab and Maharashtra during the height of our counter-terrorism operations in those areas in the early 1990s. This strengthened the hands of the Police and other security agencies in dealing with terrorism and the mafia gangs. How to ensure equally effective co-ordination when different political formations are in power and bring about a convergence of approach in dealing with jihadi terrorism? Again these are questions difficult to answer satisfactorily, but they are none the less valid and relevant.13. Effective physical security is an important component of counter-terrorism, especially when the terrorists target guarded establishments and personalities. Weak physical security has been responsible for many of the successes of the jihadi terrorists in J&K, such as their recent attack on an army establishment at Akhnoor, during which they killed a Brigadier and others. But, when terrorists attack soft unguarded targets through means such as the use of explosives in public places, as they have been doing in Mumbai, physical security, however effective, cannot deny them success. Hence, better intelligence collection and investigative capabilities are all the more important.14. It is not as if the Mumbai Police and the central intelligence agencies helping them have not made break-throughs in the investigation of the earlier blasts. They have. Arrests of suspects have been made and clues obtained. But the fact that despite them, terrorist strikes continue to take place show that what they have detected so far is only the tip of the jihadi iceberg.15. This jihadi iceberg has been forming for years since the Babri Masjid demolition of December,1992,---not only in Mumbai, but also in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, New Delhi and other parts of India. While we focussed on jihadi terrorism in J&K, we did not pay the same attention to this iceberg threatening the rest of India.16.Even though India has been the worst victim of jihadi terrorism in the world today, neither the political leadership nor the moulders of public opinion nor even many of the professional experts have an adequate understanding of the nature and magnitude of the problem and of the international linkages of the jihadi terrorists operating in India since 1993.17. Our comparative successes of the past in dealing with insurgency or terrorism in the North-East, Punjab, Mumbai (in the 1990s), Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh were due to the fact that while the insurgents and terrorists were in receipt of financial, training and arms assistance from Pakistan's ISI, there was no involvement of Pakistani jihadis.18. The difficulties faced by us in J&K since 1993 are due to the large-scale induction by the ISI of Pakistani and other foreign jihadis belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM). The HUM is a founding member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) since 1998 and the other three joined it subsequently.19. Since the Kargil conflict in 1999, these four Pakistani components of the IIF, operating under the guise of Kashmiris, have taken over the leadership of the terrorist infrastructure in J&K and have been extending it from there to the rest of India. These are pan-Islamic organisations whose objectives were not restricted to J&K. They look upon J&K as the gateway of India and believe in bin Laden's objective of the creation of regional Islamic caliphates to bring the Muslim majority areas of Asia under a single ruling dispensation devoted to the implementation of the sharia.20. Outside J&K, their initial focus was on creating a jihadi network in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and Junagadh in Gujrat because they feel these areas should have gone to Pakistan when India was partitioned in 1947. From there, they have extended their networks, under the instructions of the ISI, to Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala because of their strategic significance in the eyes of Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment. In their perception, this strategic significance arises from Mumbai being the economic and financial capital of India and all the three States being the nerve-centres of India's nuclear and space establishments.21. Of the four Pakistani components of the IIF, only the LET would seem to have succeeded in good measure so far in extending its jihadi tentacles to Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. There is so far no evidence of similar successes by the other three components outside J&K and New Delhi.22. While the LET and the other pro-bin Laden Pakistani organisations now exercise the leadership of the terrorist infrastructure in J&K, the LET's networks in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and possibly Kerala are still in the process of formation and they have to rely largely on local organisations such as the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in Maharashtra, Al Ummah and the Muslim Defence Force of Tamil Nadu etc for their sustenance and success. Their role has been more from the background as mentors and motivators than as jihadi foot-soldiers. This should explain the fact that while the Pakistanis constitute the largest number of terrorist suspects killed or captured in J&K, this is not so in the rest of India.23. In India, there is not yet adequate appreciation of the implications for our internal security arising from the membership of these organisations in bin Laden's IIF. The implications are particularly ominous in respect of the LET. It is the most well-motivated, well-funded and well-organised jihadi organisation in the Indian sub-continent today, with its tentacles spreading as far east as Indonesia, to the whole of the Gulf and even to the US as the recent arrests of an LET cell there showed.24. Abu Zubaidah, reportedly the then No. 3 in Al Qaeda, who is now in US custody, was arrested from the house of an LET office-bearer in Faislabad in Pakistani Punjab in March last year. The Pakistani media had reported at that time that before coming to Pakistan, he had done a course in computer technology in Pune in India. Was this information developed further by the Indian intelligence agencies with the help of their US counterparts? Were they able to detect any network of sleeper-agents that he might have set up in Pune and Mumbai during his stay in Pune? Again more questions without satisfactory answers.25. The social profile of the breed of jihadi terrorists, which has been playing havoc in India and the rest of the world, disturbingly brings to mind that of the breed of Marxist ideological terrorists of the 1970s and the 1980s such as Carlos, the jackal, and his followers, the Baader-Meinhof of Germany, the Red Army faction of Germany and Japan,the Red Brigade of Italy, the Action Dirercte of France etc.26. It would be unwise to dismiss them as marginals of their society or as misled youth or as irrationals. Many of them have an affluent and educated background and are capable of independent thinking and action. What we view as irrational actions, they view as the only rational response available to them to deal with the perceived acts of injustices against their community. We cannot tolerate their giving vent to their anger through terrorism, but this is no excuse for closing our eyes and ears to their anger. Even if we cannot reduce their anger for the present, we should at least not aggravate it by unwise words and actions.27. The Marxist ideological terrorist movements of the West collapsed post-1991 due to two reasons. First, the drying-up of the flow of aherents due to the increasing economic prosperity of their societies. Second, the collapse of the USSR, Yugoslavia and other communist States which were supporting and using them.28. The flow of adherents to the jihadi terrorists from the Muslim communities in different countries shows no signs of abating. And the States, which have been helping and using them such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria for achieving their own objectives have not suffered the consequences of their actions. So long as this state of affairs continues, there is going to be no respite to the security agencies of the world from the ravages of jihadi terrorism.29. International co-operation is important in our efforts to control them, but that alone will not help us in the absence of an effective national counter-terrorism capability. India has a capability, which is better than that of many other affected countries of the world, but the fact that despite this we have not been able to prevent the spread of their clandestine networks and activities would show that there are serious deficiences in our capability and internal security management.30. Instead of continuing to rationalise our failures, we must honestly admit them and try to improve our capability. This has to be done not only at the professional level of the Police and the security agencies, but also at the political level.31. Poor internal security management at the political level has been India's Achilles heel. After 9/11 in the US, the US Congress, at the joint initiative of the USA's two political parties, has devoted about one-fourth of its sittings, if not more, to an examination of the counter-terrorism capability of the US and to reach bipartisan consensus on how to strengthen it.32. India has been the worst victim of jihadi terrorism in the world today, as stated above. How many hours have our Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies of the States devoted to this task? Zilch.33. Will it be fair then to blame the Police and the security agencies alone? Every country gets the counter-terrorism capability its political leadership deserves. (http://www.saag.org/papers8/paper773.html)Paper no. 160208. 11. 2005

THE DELHI BLASTS: WHAT NEXT?by B.RamanThe three synchronised Delhi blasts of October 29,2005, have proved----if further proof was needed--- that the motivation and the morale of the pan-Islamic jihadi terrorists belonging to the International Islamic Front (IIF) formed by Osama bin Laden in 1998 continue to remain undamaged, despite the successes scored by our security agencies in neutralising many of their sleeper cells. The assessment by some analysts that the recent severe earth-quake in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and in some areas of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) would have severely crippled the capability of the terrorists has not been vindicated.2. This assessment did not take into account the fact that a large number of Pakistani and other terrorists, who had been infiltrated into Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and other parts of India since 1993 and who have not so far been killed or captured by our security forces, still remain available for action. Their number is estimated at around 2,000. Even in the unlikely event of the infiltration of fresh terrorists from Pakistan dwindling considerably, this number would enable Pakistan and the leaderships of the jihadi organisations to keep the jihadi terrorists alive and active for some years to come.3. There is evidence that at least since 2003, their number is being augmented by a flow of volunteers from the Indian Muslim community, a phenomenon which should be of growing concern to our political leadership and security agencies. Even before 2003, there were instances of isolated elements from the Indian Muslim community joining organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which is now co-ordinating the operations of the IIF due to the weakening of the Al Qaeda's command and control. This trend has picked up momentum.4. In the past, the LET was considered a largely Pakistani organisation led by Pakistanis---mainly Punjabis and Pashtuns. It continues to be largely led by Pakistanis with close links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Its membership also continues to be largely Pakistani, but its Indian component has been steadily increasing. Many of the members/sympathisers of the LET arrested by our Police in recent months in connection with the investigation of various plots hatched by the LET for terrorist strikes in places such as Dehra Dun, Bangalore, Kanpur etc were Indian nationals. The LET activist, who was arrested by the Iranian authorities while he was trying to proceed to Iraq and handed over to the Indian authorities, was reportedly an Indian national. The heads of the LET's set-up in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were also believed to be Indian nationals.5. Of the four Pakistani members of the IIF---the LET, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI)--- only the LET has over the years managed to establish secret cells as far down south as Hyderabad and possibly even in Bangalore and Chennai. The so-called Muslim Defence Force (MDF) discovered by the Tamil Nadu Police some years ago was believed to be of LET inspiration. The LET would not have succeeded in establishing such secret cells unless it enjoyed the sympathy and support of at least small sections of the Muslim community. The Arab members of the Al Qaeda have not been able to operate in or from Indian Territory because of a lack of support or sympathy from the Indian Muslim community.6. The LET's success in organising terrorist strikes in different parts of the country from time to time and recruiting elements of the Indian Muslim youth for providing logistic and other support would not have been possible without the continuing financial and other backing of the ISI. The LET is the blue-eyed jihadi terrorist organisation of the ISI. The Pakistani authorities, under international pressure, might have ostensibly banned the LET twice, but they had taken no action against its leadership and activists.7. The LET, the HUM and the JEM have been declared Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) by the US State Department---the HUM since 1997 and the other two since 2001. Under the UN Security Council Resolution No.1373, their accounts have been ordered to be frozen. But none of them is short of funds. The funds come from the ISI, the narcotics trade and large-scale commercial activities in different parts of Pakistan in sectors such as real estate, retail trade etc.8. The recent earth-quake in the POK and the NWFP has been a windfall for them. The Pakistan Army, unable to deal with the disaster, has let the jihadi terrorist organisations, whose members are better motivated than those of the Pakistan Army, to spread into the remotest villages of the affected areas to provide relief. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, while re-issuing the order banning these organisations from collecting funds, has closed his eyes to their fund collection. Not only the LET, the HUM, the JEM and the HUJI, but also the Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been collecting funds all over the country with impunity. Much of the funds flowing from Wahabi charity organisations in Saudi Arabia are being channeled to the jihadi terrorist organisations and the banned Al Rashid Trust. The appeal issued by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No.2 in the Al Qaeda, for contributions is being used in the fund collection drive.9. The large-scale fund collection by the Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Pakistani jihadi terrorist organisations has been reducing to naught the action taken by the international community since 9/11 to stop the flow of funds to the terrorists. Narcotics money has already been flowing into the coffers of jihadi terrorist organisations for some time now due to ineffective narcotics control by the Government of President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. The so-called quake relief funds being mobilised by the jihadi organisations----without being stopped by the Pakistan Army--- would go partly, if not largely, for strengthening their capability.10. The international community has chosen to remain silent over the disturbing developments in Pakistan. India cannot escape its share of responsibility for this because of its policy of muted reaction to the continuing misdeeds of the military-controlled regime in Pakistan lest any open condemnation come in the way of the so-called peace process----which is not leading to peace, but only to more bloodshed.11. The Government must mobilise the international community to pressurise Pakistan to eradicate the activities of not only the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, but also the LET and other jihadi terrorist organisations from its territory. This is not the time to make more and more overtures to Pakistan. This is the time to make it clear to Islamabad that India's patience is coming to an end.12. The previous Government was unwise to mobilise the Indian Army after the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament by the LET and the JEM. One cannot deal with this Pakistan-sponsored evil through overt military action. The time has come to revive the covert action division of the Indian intelligence, which was reportedly ordered to be wound up by Shri I. K. Gujral, the then Prime Minister, in 1997 and give it the task of hunting for the leaders of the LET and other jihadi organisations and the terrorists who have been given shelter in Pakistan and Bangladesh.13. We should not let ourselves be fooled by the condemnation of the blasts by Musharraf and the jihadi leaderships and their denial of any responsibility for them. This is the tactics, which they have always followed---kill and then deny responsibility for the killing. (http://www.saag.org/papers17/paper1602.html)Paper no. 141613. 06. 2005

JIHAD: Linkages between Jihadis of Singapore & IndiaGuest Column-by A. S. Smiline GiniAccording to the Delhi Police, Haroon Rashid, an Indian mechanical engineer, who is alleged to be a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), was arrested by them at the Delhi airport on May 16, 2005, on his arrival from Singapore where he had reportedly gone to do a training course. 2. In a press briefing on his arrest, the Delhi Police claimed that he had links to an LET plot for a terrorist strike against the Kanpur-based plant of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The police gave the following details relating to him: · Haroon Rashid (24) alias Farooq, is a mechanical engineer, who used to work with the HAL for over two years. · He was a member of an LET module, which had planned to attack the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun, but the plot was thwarted with the Arrest of two terrorists and the killing of three others during an encounter in a South-West Delhi area on March 5, 2005. · He hails from Siwan in Bihar. He is believed to have returned to India to re-organise the LeT module that was neutralised after the March encounter. · Investigations revealed that at least twice Rashid had transferred large amounts of money to the terrorists involved in the March 5 encounter. · Rashid had resigned from HAL, Kanpur, in December 2004, to join a Singapore-based company and went to Singapore to do a 22-week preparatory course for graduate mechanical engineers in the Singapore Maritime Academy. · During his stay in Singapore, he had allegedly passed on instructions and money from one Abdul Aziz, described by the Police as a Pakistan-based top LeT operative and head of the module, to its members in Delhi. · He had been given 14,000 Singapore dollars (about Rs 3.6 lakh) of which he had already passed on 4,000 dollars to Shams (one of the killed militants) and the others in India. · The Police claimed that though they knew about Rashid's activities, they did not raid his house in Siwan to avoid creating any suspicion in his mind, which might have prevented him from returning from Singapore. When he arrived in Delhi by an Indian Airlines flight at the end of his preparatory course, he was arrested. · According to the Police, he revealed on interrogation that Shams had visited the HAL campus in Kanpur and stayed with him there to study the security details and plan a 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack. Later, the module had apparently decided to attack the IMA first. Rashid, who had graduated in Engineering from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), had come in contact with Shams and another key member of the module, Doctor alias Amir in the university hostel in 2001. 3. This is the third piece of evidence coming to notice since 2002 relating to possible linkages between jihadi terrorists operating in India, Pakistan and the countries of South-East Asia. 4. According to a White Paper issued by the Singapore authorities on Jan 7, 2003, on the Jemaah Islamiya (JI), a terrorist organization of South-East Asia, seven of the 31 suspected members of the JI arrested by them in December 2001, and September, 2002, were of Indian origin. Singapore, like Malaysia, has a large number of persons of Indian origin, who had migrated there from South India, mainly Tamil Nadu. The fact that some of these migrants had joined the JI indicated that the JI was apparently targeting this migrant community in its recruitment drive for volunteers to carry out terrorist activities against possible American and other targets in Singapore and other countries of the region. 5. However, these arrests did not indicate any linkages between the arrested persons of Indian origin and jihadi terrorist organizations operating in India. 6. The second piece of evidence came in 2003, when the Singapore authorities were reported to have arrested two Singapore nationals who, according to them, had undergone training in a LeT camp in Pakistan. This gave the first clear indication of a link between the JI and the Pakistan-based LET. “The Hindu”, the daily newspaper of Chennai, quoted the then Singapore Deputy Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, as saying:” They were involved with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Kashmiri group…” 7. The arrest of Rashid and the details regarding him as given by the Delhi Police provide corroboratory evidence of the apparent use of the Singapore territory by the LET for maintaining contacts with its cells in India and for passing on money and instructions to them from Pakistan. The details given by the Police so far do not indicate whether Rashid had any contacts with the JI during his stay in Singapore. It is also not clear whether he went to Singapore to do a training course on his own or on the instructions of the LET. If he had gone on the instructions of the LET headquarters in Pakistan, what was the purpose of the LET in instructing him to join the course? 8. These are aspects, which need further investigation by the Indian Police authorities in collaboration with their counterparts in Singapore. Both the LET and the JI have links with Al Qaeda. (http://www.saag.org/papers15/paper1416.html)(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36@gmail.com)

BANGALORE: The squabble in the top police brass in the State over creating an independent internal security squad for ‘information gathering and disseminating operation’ has resulted in police groping in dark, hours after terrorists attacked the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Wednesday evening.

The idea was mooted in 2003, after realising that Bangalore was turning out to be a soft target of terrorists from being a safe hideout.

The Government decided to create a separate force on the lines with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of USA, which will act independently.

As per the move, many wings of the police department, including Anti Terrorist Cell, coastal security, internal security under the new force, drugs and narcotics, all terrorist activities and Naxal activities.

An officer of the rank of ADGP was posted and the Government wanted to shift the office of internal security wing outside the police headquarters to avoid any interference. The proposal included separate recruitment and training to the force.

Among the proposed wings, anti-terrorist and coastal security wings directly report to DG&IGP, the internal security comes under intelligence.

Sensing that the new proposal would curtail the importance of the coveted posts and create a new power centre, the proposal received a stiff resistance from top police officers.

The proposal was sent back to Home Ministry, requesting to delete coastal security, anti-terrorist squad, internal security and drugs & narcotics from the proposal.

Since then, the internal security wing turned out to be another top-heavy wing, without any infrastructure.

The whole proposal was a well thought idea after analysing the security threats to the City since 2000. Till then, the City was considered to be a safe hideout for the extremists like ULFA, LTTE and Naxalites.

However, the police received first hint over terrorists targeting Bangalore in 1998, when ISI backed Mumbai Mafiosis, on VIP abduction mission were arrested in KG Halli. Later, Pakistan based Deendar Anjuman, involved in series of Church blast were arrested in Bangalore. Since then, there had been many indications that Bangalore was in the hit list of terrorists.

A section of police officers are disappointed with the internal security wing not coming through.

“With the present growth, Bangalore needs a different kind of policing, rather than the traditional constabulary”.

“The police, trained in crime investigation are used for various works like door keeping, traffic management, law and order, passport verification and so on”.

“Hardly any professionalism is exhibited in handling the police force,'' they said.

“The State security is another aspect. In gathering intelligence, there is a lot of duplications. Since the State intelligence works more for political bosses, the security should be separated from it,'' they contend.

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